Chicken and Cricket... a great Thanksgiving combo

 Happy Thanksgiving mates!!!

At Whites Hill, Kelsey, Jessica, and I prepared green bean casserole, scalloped potatoes, and cream of corn in the home ec room for our Thanksgiving feast. The teachers chipped in money and purchased chicken and dinner rolls, baked a pumpkin pie and moose cake. It all made for a delicious Thanksgiving meal at lunchtime as we watched the first day of the Ashes, cricket match between England and Aussie, big rivals. In the afternoon, my students gave me hugs and greeted me with many Thanksgiving wishes. For a change, we took the City Cat boat back to our apartment to add to our wonderful holiday. Tonight we'll be packing for Cairns and saying goodbye to our professor, Dr. Baker (our other prof comes Saturday).

Have a great Thanksgiving in the states. Love y'all!

Jets versus Sharks.. Aussie style

 We've been working on completing our Brisbane bucket list this week. I'll give you more detailed updates later but here's some of this week's events. I'll start with our trip to the cultural center to see the musical West Side Story. 8 of us went and enjoyed our night, it was a great performance! Imagine Australian accents having to talk in Puerto Rican and New York Yankee accents, that cant be easy but they pulled it off well.
 

Kelsey and I walked across both sides of our neighbor, the Story Bridge, and saw more beautiful views of the city. It also helped us mentally prepare to walk across the Sydney harbor bridge in a few weeks. I completely watched the AMAs, for the first time.. I'm also more caught up on the news here than I've ever been, maybe has to do with our small tv channel selection.

In the classroom this week, I went through some powerpoints covering Texas, Baylor, and US Government to all the 6th and 7th grade students. I also got to see their presentations for SOSE (social studies) covering different Asian countries. They are allowed to freely bring whatever food they'd like to share, smells of sushi and curry overwhelmed our room. Now we're already working on Christmas decorations and activities. (yes, we can discuss Jesus' birth in the classroom over here). Oh and we experienced the Tuck Shop/Canteen for the first time during tea time. I purchased a delicious Anzac biscuit (aka cookie).

Philippians 1:27

 Weekend trip #1... success!! 

Here's some highlights...

 train ride to the Gold Coast

 

 the view from our room at the Watermark Gold Coast

fun at the Surfer Paradise beach, Kels and I showing our love for camp! and us 3 reppin our sororities

 

Saturday night was the start of "schoolies" weekend.. the year 12 students (recently graduated high school seniors) go to the Gold Coast for a few nights to celebrate.. lets just say we were glad to be leaving town as they were flooding the streets

went out with the whole group, treated ourselves to a nice dinner at Sage restaurant. our bill totaled over 400 dollars, luckily my chicken dinner and coke zero was the cheapest

after being packed into a bus, then a train. I treated myself to a 7-11 slurpee and some mentos (still the closest peppermint flavor item I've found) on our way back to Brisbane

 

 and finally today, Sunday morning, we all hopped on a bus to attend Hillsong Church in Brisbane. however we were slightly misinformed with the bus number so we the rest of the group headed back into the city as Jess, Kels, and I walked over 3 km to find the church! needless to say.. this tiny black sign on the side of the road brought huge smiles to our faces!! We got there just in time to hear two songs and a wonderful sermon starting with "Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ..." Phil 1:27. How fitting. We were rather cranky after walking forever but then we got to hear about how Paul handled situations, in jail nonetheless, preaching the gospel. The service appeared pretty similar to a contemporary service back in the states.

Relaxed the rest of the day, listened to the end of the Baylor game. All I'll say there is that while I was listening the bears won 14-0... See you at the bowl game! Getting ready for another week at Whites Hill, we get to cook thanksgiving dinner for the staff. Yes family, I'll have to help prepare more than just bread and turkey for them. 

Happy Little Vegemites

More updates from Whites Hill... I keep having to remind myself that this is the end of their school year. Some differences I've noticed so far, swim class, religion class (the students prayed and heard a Bible story about Elijah... this is a state public school), 20 minute daily morning tea times, and an hour long lunch breaks.

During today's lunch break, Kelsey, Jessica, and I had the privilege of completing the vegemite challenge. Vegemite is yeast extract, salt, and a bunch of other things I probably don't want to know about. Oh and they threw some Cheesybite onto the sandwich as well. Its a popular spread, especially for toast, but its definitely not as delightful for foreigners. The other teachers found lots of laughter and joy in our suffering. But we completed the challenge and got tiaras and chocolate as our rewards. And today in English class, I learned that "Happy Little Vegemites" is an Australian colloquialism for happy kids, also a song played on the vegemite commerical.  

I administered the spelling tests today, my teacher only had to help the students out on about 5 of the 50 words because of my accent. Then in the afternoon my teacher gave me the rest of the day to teach the kids. So I decided to start the process of them writing letters back to my American students. They loved doing this! They were entertained by the American letters and were excited to write about their Australian life. Next week we'll begin to teach them more about the states and Thanksgiving. But for now, I'll enjoy my Friday with an afternoon full of “Sport” class before I leave with the whole group off to the Gold Coast by train!

THE Hill to the Medina

Finally, a little bit about my apartment here in Brisbane. We live at the bottom of the Brisbane Story Bridge, in between Chinatown and the city. It's a pleasure to walk up and down the hill every night (a hint of sarcasm). The hill is a hot spot for runners and bikers, going forwards and backwards on the steep climb. But the apartment is very nice and the staff is so friendly. We're greeted every time we enter and leave the apartment building.

The apartment itself is pretty normal, including a kitchen full of all the necessary cooking supplies, a bathroom with an odd shower door and washer/dryer, and a nice flat screen TV but no internet. Our favorite station is Ten, it often shows American shows such as Amazing Race, Modern Family, and Disney channel shows. There's also plenty of Australian shows (some knockoffs of American versions)... The Morning Show (TONS of attention to the recent royal engagement), Junior Master Chef, Australia's Got Talent, Beauty and the Geek lots of game shows, etc etc.